Years ago, I read this passage written by the immortal C. S. Lewis that has slowly changed the way I look at the world and the people around me:

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit…

We are all immortals.

What about the man who stocks the shelves at the local grocery store? He is an immortal.

What about the woman who makes your vanilla latte every morning? She is an immortal.

What about your children, your wife, your son’s baseball coach, your parish priest, the woman you argued with yesterday whose name you can’t remember, the man you have a hard time forgiving, the woman at the toll booth on your way to work? They are immortals.

We are all immortals.

C. S. Lewis was not suggesting that harm would never befall us or that we would never die an earthly death; rather, he was reminding us that our souls will live on forever with either eternal joy or damnation. We were made for eternal union with our loving Creator, and this fact should transform our lives.

To a Christian, the claim to immortality shouldn’t be shocking. What is shocking, however, is how much you and I tend to ignore that truth on a daily basis. We are often just too busy or too self-centered to let this truth strongly affect us. We should be excited beyond words to greet an immortal; yet, far too often, we just pass them by.

Of course, by reminding us of our immortality, C. S. Lewis only scratched the surface of the value of a human person. It is not only that we are meant to live forever, but that God has loved each of us forever. God has no beginning and no end, and so it is with His love for us. There has never been, nor will there ever be, a moment that God does not infinitely love you and me. Moreover, as Saint Augustine is attributed with observing, “God loves each of us as though there were only one of us.”

And there is something else to consider: The soul in the state of grace—the soul of a person made in God’s image—is a home of the Most Holy Trinity. As Saint Teresa of Avila writes in The Interior Castle:

Here all three Persons communicate Themselves to the soul and speak to the soul and explain to it those words which the Gospel attributes to the Lord—namely, that He and the Father and the Holy Spirit will come to dwell with the soul which loves Him and keeps His commandments.”

An indwelling of the Most Holy Trinity is a privilege of unconceivable magnitude, yet it is not a unique privilege granted only to the great saints like the Blessed Virgin, Joseph, Thomas Aquinas and Teresa of Avila. The Trinity indwells in each and every soul in the state of grace!

You and I will meet men and women and children today who are immortal, who are infinitely and perpetually loved by God, in whom the Trinity dwells. Of that, we can be sure, but knowing this accomplishes very little if our daily lives fail to reflect this truth—if in our actions we ignore it. We read in Psalms: “I praise you, for I am wondrously made.” And the truth is that everyone is wondrously made. The question we must ask ourselves, once we have realized this fact and contemplated it, is what it must mean to how we conduct ourselves in the world. That is the magnificent challenge proposed to each one of us.

And if you thought Catholicism was about “following the rules and getting to heaven”, you probably stopped actually *learning* your faith when you were 10. Which is also sad, because that’s at least part of the reason your perspective is so very skewed at 70.

Posted by Paul Becke on Monday, Mar, 5, 2018 5:45 AM (EDT):

We are all other Christs, albeit by adoption. But if God could have incorporated us into his Trinity by our nature, I personally don’t doubt He would have.

Posted by Peter Crumley on Monday, Mar, 5, 2018 2:21 AM (EDT):

Thank you for a superb article. I believe that if we seriously ponder the Presence
of The Most Holy Trinity in our souls, we will more readily treat others as immortal persons. God’s graciousness and plans for each one of us are truly overwhelming.

Posted by Alfred Schickentanz on Monday, Mar, 5, 2018 12:13 AM (EDT):

I have a different drift on immortality. The idea of heaven seems to risky. I think it would be better to mentain our body at the point when we are 25 and only grow in wisdom and expirience. I can see an goal oriented evolution leading to

Homo Immortalis Omnipotent

Living in “Infinite Space-Time”! No more “human created secondhand God’s”!

The function assigned to GOD is now available through understanding
the Universe we are part of. We will be the Engineers of our own body chemistry, in the Infinity of Space-Time we can live forever.

Biotechnology will control the “aging process” (we don’t wear out, but are DNA programmed to age), and “involuntary death” will not exist any more.

Many people know that we all have to die, so anything that may undermine that believe will be avoided.

If this would be information confirming that there is life after death, which is something many of us deem possible, we would be more inclined to believe it. The reason is, that once we have formed a believe and have been influenced accordingly, we are more reluctant to reevaluate our acceptance of it.

Since I grew up in a katholik environment I was sure that by following the rules, I would go to heaven and presumable not be dead.

I am now over seventy years old and have lived and loved on five Continents. With the information and experiences I have been exposed to, I have come to the conclusion, that science will make it possible that we can keep on living here, instead of dying and going to heaven.

Posted by Viola M. Rose on Sunday, Mar, 4, 2018 3:05 PM (EDT):

Yes, indeed, we are called by a special choice to be a praise o His glory. Years ago I came across this little powerful prayer, “Live, my Triune God, so live in me
That all I do be done by Thee;
That all I think and all I say
Be Thy thoughts and words this day. Amen”

Posted by Mack on Sunday, Mar, 4, 2018 2:56 PM (EDT):

Well said. Thank you!

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John Clark is an author and speechwriter. His first book Who’s Got You? reached #1 in the Amazon Kindle “Fatherhood” category and his new book How to Be a Superman Dad in a Kryptonite World, Even When You Can’t Afford A Decent Cape was just released by Guiding Light Books. He has written hundreds of articles and blogs about Catholic family life and apologetics in such places as Seton Magazine, Catholic Digest, and Homiletic and Pastoral Review. A graduate of Christendom College, John and his wife Lisa have nine children and live in Virginia.